Oppo has teased its next smartwatch and it seems the company hasn't put a lot of thought into it. Instead of coming up with its own design, Oppo seems to have cloned Apple’s all the way down to the watch’s face.
As spotted by XDA Developers, the Oppo Watch’s design has been teased by the company’s VP Shen Yiren on the Chinese social media site Weibo. And when I first saw the thumbnail on my RSS feed I thought XDA Developers was using an official Apple photo. That’s how similar it is. Oppo has cloned every aspect of the Apple Watch except for its signature crown.
And who can blame them? Apple is clearly dominating the market with its Watch Series 3 and Watch Series 5, so clearly what they are doing is working. Which is why Xiaomi also copied Apple with its $185 Xiaomi Watch — although it at least tried to give the design a twist by giving it a more retro look.
Tough competition
It’s yet to be seen if any of the Chinese techmakers can compete with Apple’s wearables. In its latest financial report, the Cupertino company crushed everyone’s predictions. And it wasn’t for the iPhone — which bounced back — but because of the AirPods and the Watch. The latter has become the dominant smartwatch in the industry, helped by Apple’s health focus, its feature polish, and Google’s lack of a credible Android-based alternative.
Perhaps if Xiaomi and Oppo can overcome Android’s limitations with its own features and undercut Apple’s prices while keeping the quality, they may have a chance. Otherwise, the Oppo and Xiaomi watches will be nothing but “those Chinese clones that are not as good as the real thing.”
We will see how that goes once Oppo announces the price and features of its watch, which are not known yet.
